Family members caring for Alzheimer's patients are subjected to severe stresses and may be at especially high risk for depressive reactions. This study investigates stressors, moderating variables and adaptation in families of Alzheimer patients and controls. The inability to alter the course of the disease, the demanding care required and the inevitable bereavement make depressive reactions especially probable. Two related theories of vulnerability to depressive reactions will be tested in this investigation, Brown's social-network-self-esteem theory and Seligman's attributional theory of learned helplessness. It is predicted that Brown's finding that use of a confidante has strong prophylactic value against depression will be replicated. An attempt will be made to establish what the ingredients and intensity of such relations need to be with a view toward specialized training of professional staff to fulfill such roles. It is also anticipated that incorporation of Wortman's critique of Seligman's learned helplessness model will strengthen the predictive power of an attributional approach. Very little has been done with this theory in field settings despite its flourishing status in the lab and increasingly paramount position as a psychological explanation of reactive depression in lecture halls. We predict a complex interactive relation between quality of social support networks and depressive attributions. The former will tend to moderate the latter, but when the latter occur, they tend to reduce the former. Strong negative biases against chronic sufferers appear to be endemic in this society. Much of the phenomenon seems to be related to Lerner's "Belief in a Just World" hypothesis, i.e., people get what they deserve. We are particularly interested in how subscription to this attribution affects Alzheimer patient care by family members.